Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb

A short post today. Just a note, really:

One of the striking features of Croatia’s capital city is this bright and cheerful building on Marshal Tito Square in Zagreb’s Lower Town. This is one of five branches of the Croatian National Theatre, known as HNK Zagreb. When the building was officially opened in 1895, Franz-Joseph I, emperor of Austria-Hungary, was present.

If you think the building looks like something that might fit in elegant Vienna, you’re not far off the mark. Viennese architects Fellner and Helmer built this splendid theatre in 1895.

Over the years, numerous wonderful local and international artists have performed at the stage. I wish I could have been here in the mid-1800s to hear Franz Liszt play, or a few decades later for Sarah Bernhard, or even later to see Laurence Olivier.

How about you? Do you love the theatre?

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What a gorgeous building! I do love the theater. I saw Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague, a few years ago. Great performance in another gorgeous theater. Thanks for linking up to Travel Photo Thursday this week.

Oh wow, this place has such a special connection for me. I’m obsessed with the musical Elisabeth, the story of Franz-Joseph’s wife. Elisabeth died 3 years after this building was opened. I wonder if she was there with her husband for the opening? If so, I really need to visit this place! My whole goal in life is to travel to various places based on my nerdy pop-culture obsessions.

Near Theater is a famous museum of Mimara located in the remarkable architectural “Lower Town high schools complex”, which was built at the end of the 19th century in the spirit of historicism: it is a very valuable example of the neo-Renaissance palace, and is the work of two German architects from Leipzig/Berlin, A. Ludwig & L. Th. Hülssner, who were specialists in the design of school buildings. T